What exactly does it mean to be perfect? When it comes to our physical existence, we actually need relatively little and the less that we need the more perfect we are. However, in our relationship with God this is reversed. The more we need God the more perfect we are. Moreover, this is not something we should be ashamed of, but is, in fact, perfection itself. I cannot think of anything sadder in this life than people living all their days without discovering their need for God.
For what is man anyway? And what is his power? What is the highest he is able to will? Is not man most fully realized when he comes to understand that apart from God he is capable of nothing that will stand the test of eternity, nothing at all? Was it not the Christ Himself who stated, "If a man remains in me, and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing" [John 15:5]. There are few more sobering verses in all of Scripture and it took me years to come to an understanding of Jesus' declaration. It is truly rare wisdom -- not rare in that it is only offered to the most highly educated, but rare because it is offered to all.
To look outward it will appear that we can accomplish amazing feats and can draw the enthusiastic accolades of man and there may be some level of satisfaction associated with this. And mankind is almost certainly God's most glorious creation, but its glory is primarily in the external and for the external. Do not our eyes aim its arrows outward every time passion and desire tighten its bowstrings? Do not our hands grasp outward? Are not our arms outstretched? Do we not consider our ingenuity to be all-encompassing? To the levels we do we are deceived!
We must learn to realize that as people we are great and at our highest only when before God we realize that in and of ourselves we are nothing. Even Moses, whom most consider the most powerful man to have ever walked the earth, realized that he was capable of nothing if the Lord did not will. His power was in living a life submitted to the Lord. One of the great struggles of life is to come to this realization, that in and of ourselves we are capable of nothing.
This also applies to our internal worlds. Are any of us capable here either? If capability is to actually be capability there must be some form of opposition. In the internal world of the spirit, our opposition can only come from within. And thus, our struggle is with ourselves. To the extent that we fail to realize this, our understanding is faulty and consequently our lives are imperfect.
Such self-knowledge is not really complicated. But then are we able to overcome ourselves by ourselves? How can we be stronger than ourselves? It takes something or someone else. We need to understand that with will power alone we create in our innermost being temptations of glory, fear, despondency, pride, defiance, and sensuality greater than those we meet in the external world. And for these reasons we struggle with ourselves and victory proves nothing but greater temptation. We must know that deep within ourselves that we are capable of nothing at all.
In one sense, to need God and to know that this is our highest perfection, makes life more difficult. However, in as much as we do not know ourselves, we do not actually become conscious in the deeper sense that God is. When we become conscious that we are capable of nothing, we have every day and every moment to more fully understand that God lives. If we do not experience this often enough it is because our understanding is faulty and we believe that we are, after all, capable of something.
This does not necessarily mean that our lives become easy simply because we learn to know God in this way. On the contrary, it can become far more difficult. But in this difficulty our lives acquire a deeper meaning. Should it mean nothing to us that as we continually keep our eyes on God, knowing that we are capable of nothing, but with the help of God we are indeed more than capable? Should it mean nothing to us that we are learning to die to the world, to esteem less and less the things that are temporal? Lastly, should it not have meaning for us that we come to a broader and fuller understanding that God is love and that God's goodness passes all understanding?
So what does all this mean really? Just as knowing ourselves in our own nothingness is the precondition for knowing God, so knowing God is the precondition for our sanctification, with both His assistance and according to His intention. Wherever God is, there He is always creating. He does not want us to remain spiritually soft and bathing in the contemplation of our own glory. He wants to create a new person. To need God is to become new. And to know God is the most crucial thing in this life. Without this knowledge we become nothing. Without this knowledge, we are scarcely able to grasp that we ourselves are nothing at all, and even less that to need God is our highest perfection.
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